Today is National College Colors Day, and as you can see, we are a blended family!

Hannah is rocking UCF colors for her dad, Kevin, Aubrey is representing her mom Jamie’s school, and Dee and I are wearing our beloved purple and gold. In fact, we were scheduled to be in Houston this weekend to watch our LSU Tigers take on BYU, but Harvey had other ideas.

And that brings us to the important topic of the day: flood insurance.

It’s heart wrenching to see the people of Texas and South Louisiana struggling to pick up their lives after one of the biggest natural disasters we’ve ever seen. And it’s also heartbreaking to learn that FEMA estimates more than 80% of the people flooded by Harvey do not have flood insurance.

It’s important to understand three things about flood protection.

1. Flooding is defined as rising ground water, and it is NEVER covered under your homeowners policy.

2. There are two types of flood zones: mandatory and preferred. If you live in a mandatory zone, your mortgage company will require you have flood insurance as a condition of your loan. If you are in a preferred zone, you are eligible to purchase flood insurance inexpensively, typically about $500 a year. You may even get a discount on your homeowners insurance for having a flood policy.

DO NOT EVER LET SOMEONE TELL YOU THAT YOU ARE NOT IN A FLOOD ZONE!

3. You can purchase flood insurance any time, but unless you buy it when you close on a new home, there is a 30-day waiting period before it goes into effect.

We’ve been getting calls all week from our clients asking to add flood insurance, but I won’t be happy until everyone is protected. Please, please, please, call us or email us to talk flood.

I came across an excellent article this week in the Washington Post about what is happening to those in Harvey’s path who don’t have flood insurance. I highly recommend it if you are still on the fence about adding flood insurance.

This month’s Bright Ideas offers insight into two other timely topics: a cool new health insurance program our agency recently took advantage of (we’re going to save almost $8,000 a year on our group health plan), and a reminder about our mobile app, which puts all of your personal insurance information at your fingertips.

Thank you again for being a customer of Sun Insurance Services. We appreciate your business!

And, I hope you and yours have a safe, restful Labor Day.

Until next month,

Jim

Small business owner struggling with rising healthcare costs?
We have good news!

Like every small business owner in America, we at Sun Insurance Services have struggled with the rising costs of our employee healthcare plan. If this is a concern for you, you’ll be interested in what we learned recently when our group plan was up for renewal.

Our current provider offered a renewal at a 10% increase. We began to look for alternatives and discovered the All Savers Traditional Alternate. Our premium is about 10% less than our renewal offer.

The plan is a self-funded health plan designed specifically for small businesses. It includes three parts:

2. A third-party administration agreement between you and your carrier for claims processing, billing, customer service and other administrative services.

3. A stop-loss insurance policy by All Savers Insurance Company. Stop-loss insurance protects the plan from large catastrophic claims by a covered individual, and provides overall protection in the event that all claim payments made under the medical plan exceed a certain dollar limit.

With a self-funded health plan, you’ll pay lower premium taxes throughout the year, your plan won’t be subject to state mandates and you’ll have the chance to get some money back at the end of the year.

Have you downloaded our mobile app?

Easy, Quick, Secure.

One touch access let you connect, manage, update and protect your family, your business and your property right from your smartphone. Anytime, anywhere access to E-IDs, bill-pay, claims, one click home inventory, auto info and more. We’re here to help before, during and after something happens.

Our app is the easiest way to connect with us to share & update information to ensure customized coverage to fit your needs. Use our app to view your E-ID, create a home inventory in minutes, detail an accident, and capture & store your policy info. Convenience at your fingertips… “I” is YOUR personal insurance icon!